Israel Matzav

Egyptian helicopter breached Israeli airspace

An Egyptian pilot flying a Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter breached Israel's border with Egypt on Sunday and flew over the Negev region for 25 minutes before four IAF F-16's, which had been scrambled to meet the intruder, fired warning shots, scaring the helicopter back across the border.

The incident occurred at 5pm, when a mi-8 model helicopter crossed the Israeli-Egypt border near Eilat and continued to fly over the Negev. Four F-16 fighter jets were called up from Nevatim and Ovda airbases. The pilots attempted to contact the Egyptian pilot over the radio, but to no avail.

Only after the IAF jets fired warning shots, the pilot retracted his steps and returned to Egypt.

"The pilot was flying at a low speed, and didn’t respond over the radio," said an Air Force official, adding that the reasons behind his excursion were still unclear, but that all possibilities were being examined, including an intelligence gathering mission or an unintentional error.

The official added that the Air Force views this incident with the fullest gravity, noting that they have never encountered a similar situation.

That's because in the old days, we used to shoot them down and ask questions later.

What was this guy up to? I'm going to guess he was freelancing and seeing if he could find anything out by flying over the Negev around sunset. But that's a guess and it could have been more sinister.

Labels: Egyptian border breach, Egyptian-Israeli border, Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:15 PM